Tearing Down The Silos

We have all seen stories of how media exposure has helped facilitate change. Certainly the downfall of New York’s last governor was accelerated by a New York Times article.

But what about the blog-o-sphere. And particularly in our Jewish world, what place do blogs play and what place (in an ideal world) should they play.

The blog world has been instrumental in bringing into the open the apparent on-going strife at the UJC. Whether it is from anonymous bloggers at Disunited Jewish Communities or a long established communal leader and critic like Richard Wexler blogging with particular insight at UJ Thee and Me, blogs have made a visible impact. The former even bearing mention in a recent LA Journal story, As Jewish communities unite, disconnectspersist, on the UJC’s problems: “The lives of UJC top executives have been made even more unpleasant lately by an unidentified blogger who seems to have a direct pipeline into UJC’s inner workings.”

What role did the blogs play in bringing this story to the attention of the Jewish Journal? Rumor has it The Jewish Week is planning a story on the same subject.

What is fact, the established media has been just as obsessed as the UJC in trying to identify the source.

We have several posts in the works from established bloggers whose audience is the Jewish demographic. Hopefully this will provoke meaningful discussion on the role blogs play.

In the meantime check out the LA Jewish Journal article; you can find it here.

An excerpt: “According to a number of Jewish leaders, many of whom played key roles in the merger discussions, their expectations for UJC have remained largely unfulfilled, to put it diplomatically.

Part of the fault, the critics say, is structural, and some are missteps, such as the elimination of the popular UJA brand name. But most of the criticism focuses on the performance of the UJC leadership, which is faulted foroperating in a vacuum, avoiding vigorous discussions before implementing decisions, lack of passion and energy, and terrible staff relations, marked by the departure of five key senior staffers during the past year.”

eJewish philanthropy has extended an invitation to Howard Rieger, UJC’s CEO, for a guest post response to the Journal article. Howard has not responded (updated April 18th).

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